What You Do:

Explore nucleation.

Practice developing and testing a hypothesis.

Drop Mentos into soda to see what happens!

What You Need:

Mentos mint candy
12-16 oz bottles of Diet Coke
12-16 oz bottles of Regular Coke
12-16 oz bottles of Sprite
12-16 oz bottles of Club Soda
60 mL syringes

What Do You Do?

• Get different types of soda bottles set out and ready to be opened.
• Using the 60 mL syringe, stack about 4-5 Mentos inside.
• Carefully put the syringe just above the opening of each soda bottle and drop all Mentos in at once.
• Now the adventure starts and watch the foaminess begin!  Which soda types produce the most foam (or highest geyser)?

What’s Happening:

The numerous small pores on the candy’s surface catalyze the release of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas from the soda, resulting in the rapid expulsion of copious quantities of foam. Although any carbonated beverage will produce a similar effect, the reaction was popularized using Diet Coke for seemingly producing the best results.